Oops!A
few nights ago, I was going home with my mother at around
8 pm. We were stuck in a traffic jam in front of Mouchak market.
Right in front of us, a taxi and a rickshaw were passing by
the same route. There was a man and a burkha clad woman in
the rickshaw. Suddenly, the taxi brushed against the tire
of the rickshaw, which was a good enough reason to start screaming
at each other. To make matters worse, the male passenger got
down from the rickshaw and began to scream hard and began
to swear at the taxi driver, to which the taxi driver also
responded with equal amount of venom. Once the man realised
that there was nothing else to scream about, he turned around
to board his rickshaw. Interestingly, while they were busy
screaming, another rickshaw with a burkha clad woman on, stopped
by to have a peek at the chaotic scene in the middle of the
road. As it was dark, the screaming-man had not noticed it
and boarded the wrong rickshaw. Since we were just beside
the taxi, my mother noticed all the happenings and was trying
hard to smother a big smile. She shouted to the man, 'Hey!
Your rickshaw is over there. This is another one.' The man
realised his mistake and went back silently to his rickshaw.
However, after that, we burst out laughing, thinking that
probably he would have gone off with the other woman, if no
one had been there to point out his mistake.

Jafrin
Jahed JitiViqarunnisa Noon College

United
we jam!Not
excited for yet another venture for Eid shopping with my mother,
I was practically dragged and emotionally blackmailed into
accompanying her to probably choose another sari for Aunty
so-and-so or toys for the little ones scattered in the family.
To my horror and dismay, we were stuck right in front of Mouchak
Market and had to linger on amidst the crowd filled with all
kinds of honking vehicles and screaming people. All of a sudden,
Mahmuduzzaman Babu's Aami Banglay Gan Gai blared
out from the speakers of the market. The voice and the song
were both so soothing that I found myself calming down and
singing along. Fascinatingly, the honking ceased slowly and
the screaming subsided. The people around me were singing
along as well. I looked around me and found almost everyone
mouthing the words of the song and humming the tune. For some
peculiar reason, I felt the very unfamiliar feeling of being
united with everyone around me. The song, which speaks about
our language and culture, seemed to be reflecting within every
human being stuck in the traffic jam that night. For once,
I think everybody that evening wanted to be stuck in the jam
for a while longer!

Nasheeth
KaiserBanani, Dhaka

Eid
entertainmentWho
said there are no 'cool' ways of entertaining yourself in
Dhaka? This Eid, many who hadn't left the city, found different
ways of amusing themselves by taking advantage of the empty
streets. Young boys brought out their cars and got rid of
the silencers to make as much noise as possible to have their
presence known. They had the thrill of speeding at 120 km
per hour, and to their delight, had no one to stop them. Bikes
came into the scene 'vrooming' their ways on the flyover.
The result was bloody, obviously, with youngsters (who did
the 'smart' thing by not wearing helmets) ending up in the
hospitals with cracked skulls. You could say that these races
were a 'smash-hit'.